Lately, I’ve been trying to have more breakfasts or light meal items ready for on the go. Whether I’m at home or going to be out, it’s great to have something to grab in the morning. Often things get crazy busy so fast, or there’s no time to make breakfast. I want to be sure that I’m getting enough good fiber and good protein in the mornings.
I’ve been planning and preparing quite a few things that work for morning meals or morning snacks. Also, I was talking to a friend lately, and she was saying how she often just grabs half a bagel on her way to church, or she just can’t think of what to eat in the morning when she’s in a hurry. That got me thinking as well, and I want to share some ideas for high fiber and high protein breakfasts or snacks. Not all of them have high protein, but they’re good things to either grab at home while you’re busy, to take with you to eat in the car, or to eat once you get somewhere.
Also, sometimes we’re not that hungry early on. I know people recommend eating within an hour of waking, but that’s not always best. Sometimes it’s helpful to go somewhere, and then eat once you’re relaxed – when you’re in a place like a doctor’s office where you have to sit and wait or something like that. So, let’s talk about some ideas. Hopefully this will inspire you with some ideas for what you like. Then you can do a bit of preparation, and keep things ready in the fridge or freezer. Then you can grab them when you need to.
So, one of the best things, one that I’m sure a lot of you have had before, but which I only started to make very recently, is chia pudding. It’s so easy to make, and it’s really delicious. I have these lovely little jars that I was going to use for home-made yogurt, but I haven’t got around to that. I’ve been using them for the chia puddings – they’re about 150 milliliter jars. I usually fill them two-thirds full – probably 100 mil. They’re really convenient to grab in the morning, whether you’re home or going out somewhere. Just grab a jar from the fridge, and a teaspoon, and you’re good.
I make chia pudding every few days. For the version I make at the moment, I use about two cups of raw milk, and about four tablespoons of chia seeds – maybe five if you like it thicker. To that I add four scoops of chocolate bone broth protein powder – the Ancient Nutrition one – a few shakes of Ceylon cinnamon, a pinch or two of salt, and some sweetener. I’ve been using the monk fruit erythritol sweetener. You could also use maple syrup, although that’ll make it a little runnier. It needs about three tablespoons of sweetener.
Whisk those ingredients up, then leave it for 10 minutes, and then whisk it again. Often the chia seeds clump together because of the runny milk, so you need to whisk it again a few times over the next hour. Leave it out for an hour until it thickens up, and it’s nicely mixed. Then you can put that into the jars and leave them in the fridge overnight or for longer.
You can also make yogurt chia pudding by mixing the seeds into yogurt and adding a little bit of sweetener. With that one, I hear the seeds clump less. You could make one with a raspberry flavor – there are many different recipes on the internet. Chia pudding is a great thing to have because it’s so high in fiber, and it’s got good protein, especially with the protein powder added.
I haven’t done this for a while, but pre-made egg muffins are great if you like eggs. You make them in muffin cups. First, cook some zucchini and bacon, or even some butternut, and then put little bits of that into the muffin cups. Then you make an egg mix by blending up 15 to 18 eggs (for a couple of muffin trays’ worth). You can add a little bit of milk, and either some feta or cottage cheese – that makes it really delicious.
You can add some grated cheese as well, and then lots of herbs, and about a teaspoon and a half of salt. Oregano is nice in these, and you can add a bit of smoked paprika and some onion powder. Just be creative. Blend all that together in the blender, and pour it into the muffin cups. You bake it at about 200 degrees Celsius, 400 Fahrenheit, for about 45 minutes, until they’re set.
Usually I leave those in the freezer, and they work very well. You can leave them in the freezer in a few small glass containers, and take out one at a time as you need them. Leave them to be defrosted in the fridge, and then just warm them in the air fryer, in the oven, or even in a frying pan. You can grab those in the morning and take them with you, or have them with some toast at home.
Plain Greek yogurt is always easy. Add a bit of Greek yogurt to a bowl or a jar, and then add a little bit of honey or maple syrup, and some berries. That’s a great easy one to take with you.
Also, I’ve been making some seed and nut bars and balls recently to keep in the freezer. Those are great because they last forever in the freezer, then you can just take a few out to defrost as you need. I really wanted to up my fiber and protein, so these have protein powder in them. They’re raw – not baked at all. I wanted the nuts and seeds to stay raw. If you have a coffee grinder, you can use that to grind the seeds.
I took some sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds, and ground them into powder. It’s best to grind flax seeds immediately before using them, because then they don’t go rancid, and they have much more nutrition in them. I added those to a bowl – probably about a tablespoon or two of each kind. Then I added about a cup and a half of plain rolled oats. Then I put the nuts in the food processor for a bit until they were chopped up. I used a few cashews, a couple of walnuts, some pistachios, and some pecans – about a cup of nuts total. Those are all good, nutritious nuts.
I chopped those up a bit and added them to the mix. Then I added about a cup of almond butter to bind it all together, as well as a scoop of bone broth protein powder, and a couple of tablespoons of monk fruit sweetener. I mixed it all together. The almond butter is the binder, so it’s best to mix all the dry ingredients first so that they distribute well, and then mix in the almond butter. It comes together quite well. If it’s still too dry, you can add more almond butter, or even a tiny bit of water, though you don’t want it to get soggy.
Then, as soon as it’s a shapeable dough, just roll it into balls, or put it into a lined baking tin and then cut pieces after you leave it in the freezer for a short time. You should always score it first, then leave it in the freezer a bit, and then break apart your pieces. After doing that, I put them in a glass dish with a lid in the freezer.
So, it takes a bit of time upfront, but you only have to do it once a week or so. In fact, mine have lasted for three weeks so far, so it’s really not a big deal. The balls are easier to eat – you just have to grab one. The bars are a little bigger, and they fit a bit more nutrition. Just do what you prefer. You can really use any nuts or seeds that you like. If you need more dry ingredients, then add some more ground seeds. That works really well. Obviously, they’re gluten-free and flour-free, et cetera.
You could use a date sweetener in place of the other one, and also instead of some of your liquid. Boil a kettle, and add a little bit of boiling water to about eight dates in a bowl. Leave that for a few minutes to soften, and then blend it up into a liquid and add that. Just make sure the liquid’s not too runny.
Then, of course, there are things like jerky or biltong. We like to have sliced biltong in the freezer. We just grab some, and it defrosts very fast. Of course, raw nuts and seeds, trail mix, and dried fruit snacks are great – you can balance a little bit of dried fruit with nuts and seeds. You can have a pack that combines pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, and almonds with some raisins or dried cranberries, or whatever you like.
You can make a simple protein shake out of milk, or whatever liquid you want to use, and protein powder. That’s really easy for on-the-go, or for sipping if you aren’t hungry. When you don’t feel like eating, this helps you still get your protein.
You can also prepare smoothies in advance. I sometimes like to make a smoothie and keep half in the fridge for the next day. One I enjoy is cashews and pineapple with ice. This sounds quite strange, but it’s actually really delicious. You chop up a whole pineapple, and then add about half a cup of cashews and about a cup of ice cubes. Those will have gaps between them, so it’s not exactly a cup. Then you add a little bit of water and blend that all up. It becomes a thick, creamy cashew custard which is so delicious. You can also add vanilla protein powder to that. If you need it to be thicker, add more cashews, and if you need it to be thinner, add a little bit more water. Blend it a few times – this one works well in a bullet blender.
Another smoothie I like to make is berries like blueberries, combined with either coconut cream or cottage cheese. If you use cottage cheese, you probably need a little more sweetener. You use honey, monk fruit sweetener, or stevia in this. Again, if it’s too thick, add a bit of water, and if it’s too thin, add a few more berries. I like using frozen berries, but you can do it however you like. Again, protein powder will also thicken this a bit.
You could have some sliced apple with almond butter – a good combination. Dip the apple slices into the almond butter, and then you’ve got your fiber and your protein. You could do cucumber, carrot, and maybe celery sticks; pre-chopped and ready, with some hummus. A good way to keep the cucumber, carrot, and celery sticks overnight in the fridge is in a jar of water. Cover the chopped sticks with water, and then put the lid on. Then just take them out in the morning to eat wherever. You can bring some hummus in a small container, or eat it in a bowl if you’re at home.
We need to break out of the mold of breakfast – we don’t always have to have the same kinds of things. Having raw veg like cucumber for breakfast is perfectly fine if you feel like it, as long as it’s got some good fiber and some good protein. In this case, the protein would be in the hummus, as chickpeas are high in protein.
Perhaps you should put a list on your fridge to remind you of some different options if you forget them, because usually within a few weeks you’re stuck again, and you can’t think of things. You could bake some small, high-protein muffins, and have those ready to grab from your freezer. You could cook some little chipolata sausages, chicken or pork, and have those ready to grab. You could warm them if you like.
You could keep some THM pancakes ready-made in the fridge. Those are made with cottage cheese, oats, and eggs. They have good high protein and fiber. Sometimes have them with grated cheese on top, or with a little bit of honey and butter.
You can even have soup. This can work well around 11:00 AM if you don’t eat before that, but soup works great even for breakfast. One of my favorites is cauliflower and cheese soup. This is the easiest soup ever, and it’s so delicious. You just put a whole lot of cauliflower in a pot, add some broth if you have some, and a little water. You want to put the liquid about halfway up the cauliflower – not too high, or the soup won’t be thick enough.
Boil it until the cauliflower’s soft, and then add a little bit of grated cheese and some cream. If you don’t want the dairy, then just add a bit of coconut cream. Blend it up with a good amount of salt, and some pepper. It’s so good! I keep this soup in little containers in the freezer. I can take them out the day before if I want a little cauliflower soup to heat the next day. This is quite a thick soup, so it wouldn’t work as well in a flask, but it works well at home in a bowl.
One you could take with you in a flask is a broth lentil-and-barley soup. My mother-in-law makes the most delicious lentil and barley soup, and I’m learning how to do that to match hers. Basically, you take a pot of broth – two-thirds of a normal sized pot, and then you add a pack of red lentils – about 250 grams. Normally, the smaller size you buy at a supermarket would be the right amount. The red lentils cook, and then disappear into the soup and thicken it.
After that, you need to add about two or three tablespoons of pearl barley. Grate a medium sized potato and a medium sized carrot, and add those, and then lots of seasoning – salt, pepper, onion powder, smoked paprika, a little bit of chili powder, and a few herbs like oregano. Cook that on low for a long time; about four to six hours. You need to watch that it doesn’t burn or stick at the bottom, so mix it up and stir it regularly.
The red lentils will gradually disappear, and the potato and carrot also cook away a little bit. It’s a thickish soup. You can even blend it a little bit afterwards if you need it to be very easy to digest. This is very high in protein and fiber with the red lentils and the barley. It works great to drink in a flask when you’re out, or at home with some lovely sourdough or other bread.
These are some things that I’ve been enjoying lately. They’ve helped me so much because I’ve had them ready. I’ve kept them in jars in the freezer ready to grab. I also want to mention the classic chicken soup that Darren McGrady makes – the royal chef on YouTube. His chicken broth soup is so delicious. It’s a lovely thin chicken broth.
So, it’s important to be organized, and to do this kind of thing in advance. Your planning and thinking is a very critical step. You should think about what kind of containers will help you. We found some lovely jars with screw-on lids that are about five hundred milliliters, which is two cups, or about a pint. I’ve put the lentil barley soup in those in the freezer, and then I just take out one every day or two when I need it. One jar will last for one or two meals, depending on how hungry I am.
Having those jars of soup ready is really great, and they work well for lunch too. One batch of soup fills quite a lot of jars, and lasts you for a while. My last batch filled about ten of those jars, so obviously you need to have space in your freezer, but once you have them they’re really helpful. I know some people like to stack flat plastic bags of soup in the freezer, but I wouldn’t put my soup into a plastic bag – there are too many microplastics. Glass jars work very well for me.
I hope you’re feeling inspired, and that you have some ideas. Go sit down and write down ideas of things that you enjoy, that would be great to be able to grab. It really helps, and it doesn’t take that long once you get into the swing of it. You could make one thing a week, and add to your stash while still having leftovers from previous things. Gradually build up what you have.
We also make muffins from freshly ground spelt flour; good, high-nutrition muffins to grab or to have as a snack for the family. I hope you get to making some yummy things – I’d love to hear from you. If you want to email me it’s karyn@familyfoodformoms.com.
RECIPES FROM THIS EPISODE
Chia Pudding
